Camões em Babilónia : «Sobre os Rios» glosa de salmo e poética

Abstract

The current approach to Camões’ roundel «Sobre os Rios» conveys an attempt to analyse the poem according to the following guidelines: i) its relationship with the Psalm «super flumina Babylonis», taking into account the known manuscript testimonies from the second half of the 16th century; ii) the relationship between the subject of enunciation and the possible receivers of the discourse, considering other places in Camões’ lyrical poetry where they are more explicitly evoked; iii) the poem’s internal organisation, noting that its construction does not offer a well-defined coherent structure; iv) the relationship between the poem and a lyrical culture focused on amorous sentiments, in which at least three major aspects converge: the Petrarchan code, the troubadour tradition of courtly lyricism, and elements of Neo-Platonist philosophy.